2014 Awards DinnerHonoring Courageous Luminaries

Thursday, September 18, 2014

The L.A Hotel Downtown333 S. Figueroa St.Los Angeles, CA 90071

6:00 PM Welcome Reception7:00 PM Dinner & Awards Presentation

Honoring:

Action for Health JusticeDespite tremendous hurdles that no other major demographic group experienced to the same extent—including language barriers and comparatively fewer outreach and enrollment assistance resources to tap into—Affordable Care Act enrollment numbers for the Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities exceeded all expectations. This success was due in large part to AHJ's coordinated work with local partners to maximize ACA outreach, education, and enrollment assistance for AAPls across the nation.

Mike GarciaOver the years, Mike Garcia, former president of SEIU United Service Workers West, has made many significant contributions to the immigrants’ rights movement. His dedicated leadership of SEIU locals in Northern and Southern California ushered in visionary organizing tactics to not only improve low-wage immigrant laborers’ working conditions, but also empower all workers to make their voices heard and reshape the union movement in California as a whole. And Mr. Garcia’s outspoken position on the need for a path to citizenship for everyone working in and contributing to this country has been important in the struggle for broad and humane immigration reform.

National Education AssociationNEA has demonstrated its commitment to advancing social and educational reforms that allow all students—regardless of their immigration status—to pursue the full extent of their dreams. NILC and NEA have partnered to ensure that as many immigrant youth as possible can benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The union was also instrumental in fighting against an Alabama law that would have required schools to verify the immigration status of newly enrolled students. And NEA has also been a strong proponent of the DREAM Act and of commonsense immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship.